Spider-Man 2 Review

Date: 7/20/2005

Why do so many superhero fans want to be like Spider-Man? Is it the spidey
senses or the cool costume? No, it’s his ability to swing from web to web at
high speeds, climb up walls, perform acrobatic jumps, and basically go
anywhere he wants without worrying about the limits of fear or gravity. The
power that this freedom gives to Spider-Man has never been captured in a
videogame … until now. Spider-Man 2 succeeds in finally allowing you to
experience this freedom by giving you the ability to sling, swing, and crawl
wherever you want throughout the borough of Manhattan. And is it ever cool to
be Spider-Man.

You can go anywhere that you see.

The game’s web slinging feature works really well and you’ll be able to get
the hang of it pretty quickly. The R1 button will shoot a web in the direction
you’re pressing the left stick, the web will attach itself to the first
building, lamppost, or other stationary object it hits and you’ll begin to
swing. If you do nothing else you’ll swing back and forth like a pendulum
until you eventually come to a stop literally hanging by a thread. This is not
that much fun, but luckily you can shoot your next web while swinging and use
it to continue moving down the street, swinging from web to web. Once you’ve
got this move down pat you’ll be able to have even more control by jumping
from the first web at the height of your swing and then using your momentum to
fly forward before shooting your next web. You’ll also learn to time and place
your shots so that you can do things like whip around corners and use two webs
to turn yourself into a human slingshot. The webslinging part of the game is
very well done and you’ll have an absolute ball zipping down the streets of
Manhattan – especially when you begin to add tumbles, tricks, and flying
dismounts to your travels.

Spider-Man’s ability to walk up walls is also included in the game. You can
swing off of a web, jump from the top of a skyscraper, or merely walk up to a
building on the street and with the touch of a button in each case you will
walking up the wall. You can effortlessly scoot up walls and buildings, around
corners, and even onto ceilings or the undersides of bridges. When walking on
walls the camera automatically rotates so that you maintain the same third
person chase camera perspective. When you combine the webslinging with the
wallcrawling you have the freedom to get to anywhere in Manhattan and to go
there in style. In fact, once you have a feel for the controls you’ll find
yourself flying through the streets of Manhattan, leaping off of skyscrapers,
and exploring the rooftops not just because you need to to complete your
current mission, but simply because you can.

As almost any tourist will tell you, it is easy to get lost in the concrete
canyons of New York. To help out the gamers who know Manhattan only from the
movies the game provides some excellent navigational aids. The first is a map
that can be called up at the press of a button. It will show your current
location and facing and the location of nearby mission markers and landmarks.
The map is a top-down view of a 3D model of the city, so you can zoom in and
instantly see the relative height of the buildings between you and your
destination. The game also helps you out when you are moving through the city
by using head-up display style markers that point out the relative direction
of nearby points of interest. There is also a small onscreen minimap that not
only shows your relative position to nearby points of interest, but the
elevation difference as well allowing you to easily tell if you need to be at
the top of a building or the street below. The navigational aids and maps in
the game are well-designed and thought out and work wonderfully when you’re
trying to get around town quickly.